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As the film opens, a young man (John Amplas), travelling on an overnight train from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, sedates a young woman with a syringe full of narcotics, slices her wrist with a razor blade, and drinks her blood. The next morning, he is met at the Pittsburgh train station by a mysterious man in white (Lincoln Maazel) who escorts him away, whereupon the pair board a local train destined for Braddock, Pennsylvania. The young man, named Martin, has romantic monochrome visions of vampiric seductions and torch-lit mobs, but it is impossible to tell if these visions are real or imagined. The man in white is Martin's elderly granduncle, Tateh Cuda. Due to the death of Martin's immediate family in Indianapolis, Cuda has reluctantly agreed to give Martin room and board, sharing the house with him and cousin Christine.

Cuda is a Lithuanian Catholic who treats Martin like an Old World vampire. He forbids his nephew from speaking to Christine and tries unsuccessfully to repel him with traditional methods: strings of garlic and holy objects like a crucifix and blessed statues. Martin mocks these attempts and says bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever." Martin also says forcefully to Cuda that he is a family member, not someone to be treated like a "Nosferatu". Cuda warns that if Martin murders anyone in Braddock, he will stake him through the heart. While making deliveries for Cuda's butcher shop, Martin meets several local women, most distinctly the lonely housewife Mrs. Santini. He runs from her attempts at seducing him but, curious, later returns to her. He seeks advice on women from a radio disc jockey, who calls him "The Count", and Martin tries to set the record straight about vampires, saying there is no "magic stuff." The DJ realizes his listeners consider Martin a hit.

Eventually overpowered by his thirst, Martin sneaks out to Pittsburgh and targets a woman he sees at a local market. Believing her to be alone while her husband is on business, he breaks into her house only to discover her in bed with a lover. Martin feeds on the man, then drugs and rapes the woman. Back in Braddock, Martin eventually gives in to what he calls the "sexy stuff" and begins a full-fledged affair with Mrs. Santini, losing interest in other women as victims to feed his hunger. Chrisine, frustrated by her disagreements with Cuda as well as her unhappy relationship with her boyfriend (played by make-up artist Tom Savini), moves out of the house. On a feeding binge in the city, in which Martin targets two derelicts for the first time, he narrowly escapes the police. Safely back at home, he visits Mrs. Santini only to find she has committed suicide. Cuda, believing Martin to be the culprit, stakes him through the heart and buries him in the backyard.

As the credits roll, radio callers can be heard asking what has happened to "the Count." The final shot shows Tateh Cuda in his garden, placing a crucifix on Martin's fresh grave.

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The film was shot with a low budget, filmed entirely on real locations, and many of the supporting cast members were friends and family of the filmmakers. It was filmed on location in the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1976.[1]

Originally, the film ran longer than the final version, at 2 hours and 45 minutes.[3] The original release was entirely in black and white. No copies of this cut exist to Romero's knowledge.[citation needed]

Much like Romero's Dawn of the Dead, Martin was edited for the European market, under the title of Wampyr. This version is only available in an Italian-dubbed version. This version's score was performed by the band Goblin.[4]

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The film received highly positive reviews from critics with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews with the general consensus being "George A. Romero's contribution to vampire lore contains the expected gore and social satire -- but it's also surprisingly thoughtful, and boasts a whopper of a final act."[6]

In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films.[7]Martin placed at number 87 on their top 100 list.[8]

British synth pop/avant-garde band Soft Cell wrote a 10:16 song entitled "Martin" inspired by this film. Only available as a 12" single bundled with initial copies of their 1983 album, The Art of Falling Apart, it was included as a bonus track when the album was released on CD.[10]